Executions and Exceptional Deaths

Our family histories are full of stories related to exceptional deaths and however difficult the subject matter might be one thing is for sure, It often makes us think, remember and honour that individual above all others.

We may live our live’s plainly, honestly and without leaving much in a way to remember us by, But die extraordinarily and your remembered for it.

Death intrigues everyone, it’s the last thing we all endure and it leaves more questions than answers.

Below is a list of ancestors and family members that have all passed in exceptional ways.

Fractured Ribs and Wounded Lungs, constantly having been bucked down and trodden upon by a ‘artain’ horse.

Napper Challen (1782 – 1855)

Fell into Chichester Canal reaching for his hat and drowned.

Mary Ann Janes (1864 – 1943)

Died in the Maldon Blitz when a bomb landed on her home.

Samuel Janes (1663 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Sarah Hinsdale (1669 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Obadiah Janes (1697 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Ebenezer Janes (1701 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Sarah Janes (1703 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Hannah Janes (1696 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Miriam Standish Janes (1700 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Benjamin Janes (1701 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Nathaniel Janes (1703 – 1704)

Killed and scalped by Native Indians during the massacre of pascommuck.

Robert Hinsdale (1617 – 1675)

Native American’s ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley, half of the men in the village were killed.

Barnabus Hinsdale (1639 – 1675)

Native American’s ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley, half of the men in the village were killed.

Samuel Hinsdale (1642 – 1675)

Native American’s ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley, half of the men in the village were killed.

John Hinsdale (1648 – 1675)

Native American’s ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley, half of the men in the village were killed.

Thomas Williams Baker (1620 – 1694)

Murdered in Melbury-Bubb, Dorset by two men who stole his Market earnings and then fled. The two assailants were later caught and gibbeted alive, they were left to die a slow death.

Samuel Bellamy (1689 – 1717)

Went down with his ship the Wydah and drowned, just off Wellfleet, Barnstable, Massachusetts.

James Gale (alias’ James Twank) (1803 – 1839)

Suspected of being murdered by his wife Elizabeth Minton, so she could marry her neighbour John Hounsell.

Mary Legg (1802 – 1839)

Suspected of being murdered by her husband John Hounsell, so he could marry his neighbour Elizabeth Minton.

Archibald Coil (1678 – 1909)

Died during the West Stanley Colliery pit disaster, 200 Miners were intombed alive and 136 of them perished.

Alexander III, King of Scotland (d. 1286)

Died when he and his horse went off the road in the dark, and fell over a cliff; the long term outcome was increased English influence and the First Scottish War of Independence and the immediate result was a regency because heirs were underage or unborn.

Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy (c. 1182 – 1242)

Fell from his horse onto his sword and died

Fulk of Jerusalem (1089 – 1143)

Fell from horse while hunting in 1143. His wooden saddle fell after him, striking him on the head, causing fatal injuries.

Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany and son of Henry II of England (d. 19 August 1186)

Trampled to death by his horse during a tournament; with his death, Plantagenet rule of Brittany was weakened (son Arthur and daughter Eleanor were underage and in future imprisoned by uncle John I of England) – finally decades later, the duchy is passed by Philip II of France to the House of Dreux, descendants of Geoffrey’s widow’s other marriage

Isabella of Aragon (1247 – 1271)

Wife of king Philip III of France – d. 1271 at 24 from a fall

Louis IV of France (920-954)

King of France, died after falling from his horse

Marjorie Bruce (1296 – 1316)

Daughter of Robert the Bruce and half-sister of David II of Scotland d. 2 March 1316 after a fall from a horse caused premature labour; her baby survived to become King Robert II of Scotland

Philip of France (1116–1131)

Heir of king Louis VI of France ? d. 1131, from a fall from a horse.

William the Conqueror (1027 – 1087)

Died aged 60 at the Convent of St. Gervais, near Rouen, France, on 9 September 1087 from abdominal injuries received from his saddle pommel when he fell off a horse at the Siege of Mantes.

John Dunbar, Earl of Moray (d. 1390)

A Scottish nobleman, died Jousting.

Henry II of France (d. 1559)

Died from lance wound; his death was a factor in the end of jousting as a sport.

Alan III, Duke of Brittany (997 – 1040)

Poisoned by unnamed Normans

Baudouin III “King of Jerusalem” D’ ANJOU (1131 – 1162)

It was rumoured that he had been poisoned in Antioch by pills given to him by his Syrian Orthodox doctor.

Margaret Drummond (c. 1475 – 1501)

It has been widely suggested in more recent years that Margaret Drummond was murdered, either by English agents or by pro-English elements in the Scottish nobility. Many believe that James IV was planning to or had already secretly married Drummond, and her death was necessary in order to allow or force the King to marry the English princess Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. The (comparatively recent) plaque on her grave in Dunblane Cathedral claims that she was commonly believed to be “privately married” to the king, and that she was murdered by Scottish nobles who supported the English marriage.

Rosamund ‘the Fair’ de Clifford (1137 – 1176)

Believed to have been poisoned by, Eléonore D’ Aquitaine

Ragnar Lodbrok (d. 865)

The semi-legendary Viking leader, was supposedly captured by Ælla of Northumbria who had him executed by having him thrown into a pit of snakes.

Sigurd the Mighty of Orkney (d. 892)

Strapped the head of his defeated foe, Máel Brigte, to his horse’s saddle. Brigte’s teeth rubbed against Sigurd’s leg as he rode, causing a fatal infection.

Edmund Ironside (d. 1016)

Was stabbed whilst on a toilet, by an assassin hiding underneath.

Béla I of Hungary (d. 1063)

When the Holy Roman Empire decided to launch a military expedition against Hungary to restore young Solomon to the throne, was seriously injured when “his throne broke beneath him” in his manor at Dömös. The King—who was “half-dead”, according to the Illuminated Chronicle—was taken to the western borders of his kingdom, where he died at the creek Kanizsva on 11 September 1063

Prince Philip of France (d. 1131)

Died while riding through Paris, when his horse tripped over a black pig running out of a dung heap.

Edward II of England (d. 1327)

After being deposed and imprisoned by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, was rumoured to have been murdered by having a horn pushed into his anus through which a red-hot iron was inserted, burning out his internal organs without marking his body. However, there is no real academic consensus on the manner of Edward II’s death and it has been plausibly argued that the story is propaganda.

Charles II of Navarre (d. 1387)

Known as “Charles the Bad”. The contemporary chronicler Froissart relates that the king, suffering from illness in old age, was ordered by his physician to be tightly sewn into a linen sheet soaked in distilled spirits. The highly flammable sheet accidentally caught fire and Charles later died of his injuries. Froissart considered the horrific death to be God’s judgment upon the king.

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (d. 1478)

was allegedly executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine at his own request.

William Adelin (1103 – 1120)

Drowned onboard the White Ship a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived

Richard d’Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester (1094 – 1120)

Drowned onboard the White Ship a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived

Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche (d. 1120)

Drowned onboard the White Ship a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived

Richard of Lincoln, illegitimate son of Henry I of England (1101 – 1120)

Drowned onboard the White Ship a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived

Geoffrey Ridel, royal justice (d. 1120)

Drowned onboard the White Ship a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived

Pepin the Hunchback (769 – 811)

Died from Plague

Blanche of Lancaster (1345 – 1368)

The Black Death

Joan of England (1335–1348)

The Black Death

Joan of Lancaster (1312 – 1349)

The Plague

Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1366 – 1399)

He died of the plague at Venice on 22 September 1399

Isabel de Verdun, Baroness Ferrers of Groby (1317 – 1349)

The Plague

Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell (1297 – 1349)

The Plague

Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick (1313 – 1369)

He died of plague in Calais on 13 November 1369

Beatrice, Countess of Arundel (1380 – 1439)

The Plague

George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Bedford (1477 – 1479)

George died aged two. This is considered likely to have been due to an outbreak of bubonic plague.

Philippa of Lancaster (1360 – 1415)

Died of Plague in Lisbon.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391 – 1425)

Died of plague at Trim Castle.

Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (1430 – 1456)

Edmund was captured at Carmarthen Castle, and died there of the bubonic plague on 3 November 1456.

Following Wallace’s success at Stirling Bridge the English fled Berwick on Tweed with Douglas and another Scottish prisoner Thomas de Morham; both were later committed to the Tower of London on 12 October 1297 with Douglas meeting his end there in 1298 due to mistreatment.

Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester (1400) – Executed at Bristol by order of Henry IV for the Epiphany Rising

John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, KG – Lord Great Chamberlain and Justice of Chester (1400) – Executed at Pleshey Castle, Essex by order of Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford, with the approval of her son-in-law Henry IV, for the Epiphany Rising

John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, KG (1400) – Executed at Cirencester during reign of Henry IV for the Epiphany Rising

Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick – Heir to the English Throne from 9 April 1484 – March 1485 (1499) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VII of England

Sir James Tyrrell (1502) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VII of England for treason

Sir John Wyndham (1502) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VII of England for treason

Sir Edmund Dudley – Speaker of the House of Commons (1510) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for extortion.

Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk (1513) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England as Yorkist claimant to throne

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG – Lord High Steward and Lord High Constable (1521) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England as claimant to throne

Anne Boleyn – Queen of England and Henry’s Wife (1536) – Executed by sword at the Tower of London by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (1536) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

Sir Henry Norris – Groom of the Stool (1536) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

Sir Francis Weston – Gentleman of the Privy Chamber (1536) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy, KG (1537) – Beheaded at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for being in the Pilgrimage of Grace

Sir Edward Neville (1538) – Beheaded at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for being in Bigod’s Rebellion

Henry Pole, 11th Baron Montacute (1539) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for being in Exeter Conspiracy

Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, KG, PC, Lord Warden of the Stannaries (1539) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for being in Exeter Conspiracy

Sir Nicholas Carew (1539)

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, KG, PC – Secretary of State, Master of the Rolls, Lord Privy Seal, Governor of the Isle of Wight, Justice in Eyre, Lord Great Chamberlain (1540) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII of England for treason

Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (1541) – Executed at Tower Green by order of Henry VIII of England for high treason

Sir Thomas Culpepper (1541) – Executed at Tyburn by order of Henry VIII for high treason (adultery with the queen)

Catherine Howard – Queen of England and Henry’s Wife (1542) – Executed at Tower Green by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford – Wife of executed George Boleyn, Viscount Rochfordand sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn (1542) – Executed at Tower Green by order of Henry VIII of England for High Treason

Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley – Master-General of the Ordnance, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord High Admiral, also was the husband of Henry VIII sixth wife and widow Catherine Parr and the brother of Henry’s third wife Jane Seymour (1549) – Beheaded for treason at Tower Hill during the reign of Edward VI of England

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG – Vice-Admiral, Lord Admiral, Governor of Boulogne, President of the Council in the Marches, Lord Great Chamberlain, Grand Master of the Royal Household, Earl Marshal of England, Lord President of the Council, Warden General of the Scottish Marches (1553) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Mary I for supporting Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey – Queen of England 10–19 July 1553 and Heir to the English and Irish Thrones 21 June – 10 July 1553 (1554) – Executed at Tower Green by Mary I as claimant to throne

Lord Guilford Dudley – Son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Royal Consort of England 10–19 July 1553 (1554) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Mary I for supporting Lady Jane Grey

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, KG – Father of the above, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Justice in Eyre (1554) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Mary I for rebellion

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger (1554) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Mary I for rebellion

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, KG – Earl Marshal (1573) – Executed at Tower Hill by order of Elizabeth I of England for Ridolfi plot)

Mary, Queen of Scots – Queen of Scots and Queen consort of France (1587) – Executed during the reign of Elizabeth I of England for treason

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG – Master of the Horse, Earl Marshal, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Custos Rotulorum of Pembrokeshire, Custos Rotulorum of Staffordshire, Master-General of the Ordnance (1601) – Executed at Tower Hill during the reign of Elizabeth I of England for High Treason

Sir Walter Raleigh – Lord Warden of the Stannaries, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, Vice-Admiral of Devon, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, Governor of Jersey (1618) – Executed in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster by orders of James VI

Charles I of England and Scotland (1649) – Executed in Whitehall, London by order of Cromwell’s Parliament

Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, KG – Master of the Horse, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, Justice in Eyre (1649) – Executed in London by order of Cromwell’s Parliament for being a Royalist

Oliver Cromwell (1661) – Posthumously beheaded at Tyburn by order of Charles II as a regicide.

Henry Ireton (1661) – Posthumously beheaded at Tyburn by order of Charles II as a regicide.

Lord Walter Stewart and Lord Alexander Sewart (1425) – Executed by orders of James I of Scotland

Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany (1425) – Executed by order of James I of Scotland

William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas (1440) – Executed at Edinburgh Castle on trumped-up charges in front of James II of Scotland

Lord David Douglas (1440) – Executed at Edinburgh Castle on trumped-up charges in front of James II of Scotland

Sir James Hamilton of Finnart – Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland (1540) – Executed by order of James V of Scotland

William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie (1584) – Executed by order of James VI of Scotland

Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney (1615) – Executed by order of James VI of Scotland

Sir John Gordon, 1st Baronet, of Haddo (1644) – Executed on the Scottish maiden by the Covenanters for treason as a Royalist

Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll (1661) – Executed by order of Charles II of Scotland on the Scottish maiden for treason

Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll (1685) – son of above. Executed by order of James VII of Scotland on the Scottish maiden for treason

Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd (February 1136) – executed by the Anglo-Norman forces led by Maurice de Londres at Kidwelly Castle, Wales, after a failed uprising

Llewelyn ap Gruffydd (1282) – Beheaded posthumously after his death in battle at Aberedw.

Sir Roger Vaughan (1471) – Beheaded at Chepstow by Jasper Tudor, Earl of Bedford for being a Yorkist.

Thomas Wintour (1606)

Robert Wintour (1606)

Sir David de Brechin (1320) – Executed for treason against Robert I of Scotland

Sir George Browne (1469) – Beheaded by Richard III, London, England

William Browne (1483) – Executed on Tower Hill

Edward Courtney (1538) – Executed on Tower Hill

Thomas Grey (1555) – Executed on Tower Hill

Richard de Haselburg (1217) – Beheaded and hung by feet

Sir Ralph Hastings, of Sutton-in-Holderness (1405) – Beheaded

List of People Hanged

Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (1330) Accused of assuming royal power; hanged without trial

Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton (1486) Accused of siding with Richard III; hanged without trial on orders of Henry VII.